Companies make quick bucks, appease the shareholders, make the founders rich, and either continue to do so, or die off after a generation has bought, made money, and sold into less competent hands. The reason for this is that just as the government has run programs for the entirety of "modern times" that rely on an ever-growing public, corporations can benefit from the same. For every honest salesman that quits in protest of selling his company's fuck-you-over credit line, there are plenty who will do so well, as Doom's Goldenboy, without ever giving a damn about what he might be doing to someone's personal finance, credit, or life.
By the same reasoning, for every person that walks out on this shitscam and never come back, there are a handful to take that spot.
While I don't agree with the business model, it works. Taking advantage of the many who don't understand the scam at the cost of the few who do earns a fortune for both the upper levels of any given company and also the current holders of the corporation.
I agree with IM that good business practice makes for long-term and, in the end, more loyal customers (and I can think of many, many examples off the top of my head). That long term return doesn't mean as much to the quick-returns shareholder, and thus the executive level of any given corporation, however. And when that model fails, it's your job as "responsible" market-player to not be holding the bag.